~~~Stanley~~~

  "Hi, guys!" Stanley said, practically shouting to be heard over the racket and while plopping down on a stool at the circular table. "I'm... Stan!"

  Surprisingly, no one but Kira seemed to recognize him. Or was it conceited to assume they would know him?

  Kira stiffened ever so slightly and shot a concerned glance around the table while her free hand moved instantly to clutch the spear. She did that every damn time they met... and she was staring again. He'd forgotten about that part. Maybe he shouldn't have...

  "Hi!" one of the young men at the table shouted back. "I'm Elias!" He had a mop of sandy blond hair and an easy smile, and he wore what looked like bone and leather armor, with a blade on his waist that also appeared to be made of bone. Elias pointed around the table. "That's Kira, Arnold, Lionel, and Bobbie! What's your class!? Do you want to join our team!?"

  It was a question Stanley hadn't heard in a while, but he still shook his head—almost out of habit—as he took in the other people around the table.

  Arnold was a dark-haired, stocky figure wearing heavy metal armor and with a shield on his back. He only glanced at Stanley briefly before continuing the argument he'd been in the middle of with Lionel, who didn't even look over but was clearly wearing a wizard robe. One so yellow it almost hurt to look at.

  Bobbie had pale skin with dark eyes and wore what looked like a normal black hoodie over her own armor, but she only blushed when Stanley met her gaze, then hid behind the bright purple waterfall of her hair and refused to look up from her plate.

  Of course, he knew Kira, and she looked the same as ever... aside from the armor. It looked similar to what Elias wore, all bone and leather. She also never took her gaze off him—her piercing red eyes staring out from behind a curtain of straight black hair with... intensity.

  He couldn't quite tell what the emotion raging through her soul actually was... something close to fear, but... different. So, basically, the same way she'd stared at him the last time they met. There was also a fierce protectiveness that flared brightly at the mention of each of her friends' names. At least, he assumed they were her friends from that reaction...

  Her unceasing stare was getting annoying the longer it went on, and Stanley opened his mouth to tell her to chill out, then frowned. Rather than keep shouting, he pushed his will against the racket. Not to silence it, but... muffle it somewhat.

  It worked, and the deafening noise dropped to a much more manageable background murmur. Stanley almost breathed out a sigh of relief before every pair of eyes at the table landed squarely on him once again.

  "Was that you!?" Lionel asked abruptly, his words tumbling over themselves in his haste. "Sonic skills. I like it. We don't have that yet. What else can you do!? Do you want to join our team!?"

  Seriously? What was with these people? Were they that hard up for teammates? "It... was me," Stanley finally admitted, deciding to answer the first question and ignore the rest of whatever that was. "It's too loud in..."

  "You two need to stop inviting everyone to join our team!" Arnold snapped while glaring back and forth between Lionel and Elias. Then his gaze snapped to Stanley. "Wait, you said your name was Stan? Is that short for Stanley?"

  "Um..." Stanley tried and failed to come up with an alternative name that started with Stan, so he only nodded reluctantly. "Yeah."

  "Like Stanley Cascade!?" Lionel blurted.

  Stanley sighed. "Yep. Exactly like..."

  "That sucks," Elias said. "I bet everyone compares you to him, don't they?"

  Kira twitched, and a slow smile grew on Stanley's face. "They do actually. All the time."

  "Have you met him!?" Lionel asked, his soul intense. "I haven't. But I want to."

  "I..."

  "You don't want to meet him," Arnold cut in. "Trust me. I saw him once, and it was the most terrifying experience of my life. And we fight monsters for a living now!"

  "Just because you were scared doesn't mean I would be!" Lionel retorted. "Kira's met him and she doesn't go on about it all the time!" Kira's grip on her spear tightened until her knuckles turned white.

  "Really?" Stanley asked, smiling at Arnold, who didn't look the least bit familiar. "What was so terrifying about him?"

  Arnold shivered. "He's not human." He leaned in closer toward Stanley, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "I think he's a demon!"

  Kira kicked Arnold in the shin beneath the table, which accomplished little through the metal plates protecting his lower legs. He still noticed. "What was that for!?"

  "You..." She swallowed nervously and her gaze flicked briefly to Stanley before she looked away. "You shouldn't gossip about people you don't know!"

  "I'm not gossiping! We're just talking."

  Stanley wasn't sure if he should be upset or not, so he pressed on. "Why do you say he's a demon?"

  Arnold opened his mouth, then glared pointedly at Kira before leaning closer again. "I was there at the battle for Hearthwood," he said. "I saw him kill the giant skeleton..."

  "What's Hearthwood?" Stanley asked, though he was pretty sure he knew. Had Nate's base had an actual name all this time?

  "It's the other base where I was before we came here," Arnold said. "We fought off an army of undead a few days ago... How have you not heard about that?"

  "I... know about the battle," Stanley said, focusing intently on the feeling of Caffeine enjoying himself nearby while also doing his best to steer his thoughts away from... said battle.

  Evolution Progress... 18%... 20%...

  He was mostly successful and finally asked, "Was the place really named Hearthwood?"

  "Of course. Why would I lie about that?"

  "Because the last time you told this story, you didn't see the invader die!" Elias said, an edge of laughter in his voice.

  Lionel gasped. "You told me you did!"

  "Okay. I mean, I didn't actually see him kill it." Arnold glanced around as if afraid someone else would chime in again. "I only felt that part, but I saw him afterward. I swear it! And I'm telling you, he was a demon! His body was too small to be a human, like a stick figure but made of charcoal and covered in glowing cracks like there was a demonic fire raging inside him!"

  He paused for dramatic effect, glancing briefly at each person around the table. "But all of that still wasn't the worst of it. I saw his eyes, and..."

  Two newcomers stepped into Stanley's quiet bubble—a young man and woman who obviously recognized him, and the woman's loud gasp interrupted Arnold's tale.

  They looked vaguely familiar, the man blond-haired and blue-eyed with similar armor to Elias, while the woman was the most normally dressed aside from Stanley in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. They both stood there, frozen in a mix of awe and terror beside the table.

  Their fear seemed a little unwarranted. Then again, if people were going around calling him a demon... and by people, he meant Arnold...

  "Hi," Stanley said, turning his thoughts away from what really didn't matter and smiling at the pair. "I'm Stan." He took a bite of his food and finally tasted it. To his surprise, it was actually... good. Fishy, but good. Better than the slop it looked like, at least.

  "He has the same name as Stanley Cascade!" Lionel exclaimed in his apparently constant rapid-fire cadence. "Arnold was telling him about him since he's never seen him!"

  That sentence was a mess, but a smile crawled onto the previously frozen young man's face as he stared at Stanley. His soul did some interesting things, and he glanced momentarily at Kira before taking a seat directly beside Stanley with a wide grin. "Hi, Stan. I'm Sven. That's Amanda. What was Arnold saying about you-know-who?"

  "He's not Voldemort!" Lionel retorted while Amanda sat down tentatively beside Kira.

  Arnold shook his head, his expression serious. "He's much worse than that, trust me, Stan. I heard that people have died simply from looking into his eyes, and after seeing them, I believe it. It was like looking into the deepest pits of hell!"

  Sven chuckled at that, and it earned him a glare from Arnold.

  "I know you guys say you've met him," Arnold growled. "And I know you don't believe me, but you're the ones who are wrong about this! I know what I saw!"

  "Wasn't it dark?" Amanda chimed in softly, her gaze darting nervously. "Maybe you didn't see..."

  "It wasn't that dark and I know what I saw! Why won't any of you believe me!?"

  "I believe you," Sven said, not quite lying and still grinning when he glanced at Elias. "Hey, did you invite Stan here to join our team yet?"

  "We did," Lionel said. "He never answered."

  Sven swiveled to face Stanley, his grin only widening. "Well, Stan? What do you say? Feel like signing on with this ragtag band of heroes? Bet we could kick some ass with you on the team."

  "We already kick ass," Arnold said. "And no offense, Stan, but we don't need another new member."

  "You joined with me, like, a week ago," Lionel said. "Technically, we are the new members."

  "Well, yeah. But then you invited Elias, and he invited Bobbie. That makes them the newbies."

  "What can you all do?" Stanley asked, surprised to find that he was enjoying himself. It felt... nice. Almost normal. Or what passed for normal these days, and it reminded him of better times with his friends... which only brought his thoughts back to the golden soul churning away at the bottom of this tower...

  "I'm obviously the tank," Arnold said, not missing his chance to boast and successfully dragging Stanley's attention back. "Nothing gets past my shield."

  "If that was true, then we wouldn't need a healer," Lionel said.

  "I'm not a healer!" Sven snapped, his grin faltering. "How many times do I have to tell you that!? I'm more like a protection priest than a holy one, but without all the insta-heals..."

  "Oh no," Bobbie finally spoke, and her soft voice came out in a wail. "You got him started!" Then she glanced at Stanley, blushed, and hid her face again.

  Sven trailed off as he noticed the interaction, and his mouth split wide in a teasing grin. "Really, Bobbie? Stanley here is what does it for you?" He looked Stanley up and down. "I guess I can see it. He's really rocking that silver fox vibe, isn't he?"

  "I like his eyes!" Bobbie whispered while peeking out past her hair. Then her own eyes went wide, as if she couldn't believe what she'd said, and Sven laughed while she squeaked in embarrassment and covered her face with her hands.

  "Don't worry, Bobbie," Sven said with a wink at Stanley. "I like his eyes too."

  Stanley only frowned as he finally realized what the emotion he'd been feeling from her soul meant. It was... attraction? That was a new sensation to have aimed his way, and going by Sven's soul, he felt the same thing. But she had to be a teenager—they both were—and he was... old. Though thinking back to the mirror earlier, Stanley had to admit he hadn't looked that bad. Still...

  "Don't listen to him," Kira said worriedly, striking the butt of her spear against the floor with a bang and drawing everyone's attention. "Sven will hit on anything with a pulse." She glared at the man. "Maybe even some without a pulse."

  Sven laughed merrily and heartily, completely unbothered by her worry. Meanwhile, Arnold's soul felt like it was sulking as he shot glances toward Bobbie, and Lionel appeared to have zoned out of the conversation completely. Now he was drawing what looked like math equations out of glowing yellow lines in midair while muttering to himself...

  At least, he was until Elias threw a piece of folded-up paper that expanded mid-flight into a bird, which immediately started eating the numbers and letters out of the air with little dives and swoops. Lionel retaliated with a complex spread of little flat squares of light that all spun around into a growing box around Elias. Mostly.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  It still wasn't enough to stop the man, and Elias slipped another folded piece of paper through a gap in the box. That one turned into a squirrel and immediately started chewing the magic apart. Arnold recoiled from the erupting chaos right as Bobbie snuck a hand out, electricity dancing between her fingers...

  Kira made a move before things could escalate further and lashed out with her spear.

  The weapon moved like a striking snake in her hands, first shattering the box around Elias, then bisecting the paper squirrel, and finally slapping Bobbie's hand down with the flat of the blade. All in the space of a second.

  "Stop it!" she hissed at the group, the spear already back at her side as if nothing had ever happened. "I'm not getting banned from the mess hall again because you kids can't control yourselves!" Her angry gaze swept over all of them before finally coming to rest on Sven, and while most of them had the sense to look abashed, Sven only grinned.

  "It wasn't me this time," he said smugly while rocking precariously backward on his stool.

  Kira flicked the butt of her spear under the table and jabbed it into Sven's stool between his legs.

  "Hey!" Sven exclaimed, throwing his feet against the underside of the table and arresting his fall, even as he cupped both hands over his groin. "Now who's fighting!? And that almost hit me!"

  "You got banned for fighting in here?" Stanley asked while pushing the bouncing table back down before his plate could go flying. It made sense, considering the sheer number of people in here and the potentially deadly powers that so many people wielded these days.

  "Yep," Sven said, rocking back upright. "But don't believe Kira; it totally wasn't my fault. I was only protecting my teammate, like I'm supposed to."

  "Y-you!" Kira sputtered. "You started it when you poured your drink down that girl's back!"

  "She was trying to lure Arnold onto her crappy team by pretending to be into him! It was an attack on his heart! More than that, it was an attack on our hearts by stealing our friend, and considering how terrible her team still is, it was an attack on his very life!"

  Kira threw her spoon at his head, which Sven cleanly dodged, his grin unwavering. The person at the next table over behind him never saw it coming, and he took the spoon straight to the back of his skull.

  "She did it," Sven said, already pointing when the angry guy, now with food in his hair, spun around.

  "You..." The irate man froze when his gaze landed on Stanley. The color drained from his face, and his eyes bugged out before he abruptly turned away. A heartbeat later, he fled, plate in hand.

  "Damn it!" Arnold exclaimed. "He's going to get us banned again!"

  "I wouldn't worry about that," Sven said, watching him go with a sly smirk. "You see, Kira's got a secret weapon on her side." He turned his gaze on Stanley. "She's got a chained..."

  Kira kicked him in the shin, and his armor didn't afford nearly the same amount of protection as Arnold's, going by his yelp of pain.

  "Arnold," Stanley said, frowning at their interaction, but with his thoughts stuck on a different topic. "You were at the battle for... Hearthwood. Do you know how many people died that night?" He'd never asked Nate... probably because he hadn't really wanted to know.

  "I'm not sure," Arnold said, his eyes dropping to the tabletop even as his gaze went somewhere else. "It wasn't so bad at first, you know? Especially with the shield. But then... well, I was on the far side when the explosion hit." He glanced up at the watching faces, then quickly looked away. "I tried to help with the cleanup, but... I just couldn't do it."

  It was Stanley's turn to stare at the table while the others said reassuring things to their friend. Marie had told him repeatedly that he couldn't blame himself for everything, but it was hard. If he hadn't left... or if he'd come back only a little sooner...

  That second point was the one that really ate at him.

  He could blame the invaders for a lot, but he'd wasted so much time after killing the cannibal... he could have... Caffeine appeared at his side and immediately hopped into his lap. Stanley smiled at the pug and pushed away the unproductive what if' thoughts. "Who's a good boy, Caffeine?"

  "You know Caffeine?" Elias asked, and Stanley looked up in confusion. It took him a moment to realize why it felt so strange. None of the surrounding people had reacted to his moment of self-recrimination... which reminded him why they hadn't. His soul wound was gone!

  "I know him very well," Stanley said, the smile creeping back onto his face as he stared into Caffeine's big brown eyes. "I take it you've met?"

  "A few times, yeah. Usually in here, though I saw him outside once... which was worrying."

  "I agree," Arnold said, shooting a glare at Kira. "Because I'm still not buying your bullshit story that he's the Beast Lord. Whoever he belongs to should take better care of him. He's a pug, for Christ's sake!"

  "He's my dog!" Stanley snapped, more than a touch of heat in his voice.

  Evolution Progress... 24%... 29%...

  He hated the implication that he wasn't taking good care of the pug, and it didn't help that he often felt the same way...

  Instead of trying to meditate or doing something unnecessarily violent to Arnold, Stanley only closed his eyes and practiced the exercises Marie had taught him.

  First off, Arnold didn't know what he was talking about, and Caffeine was more than capable enough to roam as he pleased. Second, the guy had only said what he did out of a good place. He only wanted Caffeine to be safe, and really, what more could Stanley ask for from a stranger who didn't know the pug?

  Besides, Kira was already telling him off in angry whispers that he had no trouble hearing thanks to his domain and the enforced area of quiet surrounding them.

  "I told you the dog was fine on its own!" She was right. No one could really do anything to stop Caffeine from doing... well, whatever he wanted. "So don't go around insulting..."

  Evolution Progress... 29%... 28%...

  Stanley opened his eyes in surprise, and Kira shut her mouth. Had she thought he was meditating and couldn't hear? But never mind that! The evolution progress had dropped! Better still, that was the first time he'd seen it go down without meditating or using Still Mind to...

  "Hey, man," Arnold said hesitantly. "I didn't mean to..."

  "Forget it," Stanley said, smiling at the young man. "It's fine, though I should say I'm his human. Not the other way around."

  "However you want to say it, you should still be careful," Arnold said with a defiant glance at the once again furious Kira. "I know it's pretty safe around the tower, but you never know when something might pop up."

  Stanley grinned at Arnold's refusal to accept Caffeine's status, as well as his defiance of Kira. Then he had another thought. "Wait, didn't you see the Beast Lord at the battle?"

  He clearly remembered a giant Caffeine getting in his way at the end there. It should have been impossible to miss.

  "Um," Arnold hedged, suddenly less certain of himself and looking around at the others for support. "It was dark? Plus, Stanley distracted me. The other Stanley, I mean."

  Sven was grinning widely throughout the interaction, but his smile faded the longer it went on. "That's it!?" he finally exclaimed, only to trail off with a muttered, "I thought you were going to get mad at him."

  "Why would you want me to get mad?" Stanley asked, still not sure what was going on with the guy's soul. He was cheerful and excited, but he had wanted him to be angry... Didn't this guy know him? Which meant he should know how bad of an idea that was.

  "Um, no reason!" Sven said quickly. "Hey, Arnold, why don't you tell us more about that other Stanley fellow?"

  "What's your deal?" Arnold asked instead of answering the question. "You've been acting weird ever since you sat down... well, weirder than usual. You better know that if we get banned again, it'll be on you to get the food."

  "How does that work?" Stanley asked. "Do they stop feeding you?"

  "No," Amanda chimed in. "They still let us have food, but the trick is that we can't come in to get it. Which means convincing someone else to bring it out to us. Which usually means shelling out some cores." She looked sideways at Sven. "Or you can get the ban extended by repeatedly trying to sneak back in."

  "I still swear they tagged us with something," Sven grumbled. "There's no other way they could catch me so fast. My disguise was flawless!"

  Stanley wasn't about to rat out Walter, so he changed the subject. "Elias, can those paper animals actually fight?"

  "Of course," Elias said.

  "They can't," Lionel said at the same time.

  Elias pulled another folded piece of paper from beneath his armor but held back from actually throwing it at the other man when Kira's spear shifted toward him. "Okay, so they aren't great yet." He grinned innocently at the spear-wielder and substituted a different paper into his hand. "But I can do this."

  He gave it a shake, and the paper unfurled into a spear mirroring Kira's, only his was paper. Or so it looked. When he passed it over to Stanley, it felt as solid and sturdy as any weapon.

  "Huh, weaponized origami. Not bad. Do you create the paper too?"

  His smile slipped. "I have a... stash."

  "A limited stash," Kira growled. "Which is why you shouldn't be wasting it on pranks and petty tricks."

  "Hey, I reuse... most of them."

  "What about you?" Stanley asked, tossing back the spear and turning to Lionel. "I don't remember what the yellow robes mean for you wizards... Lionel?"

  "Huh?" The man blinked through the fresh wall of math gibberish hovering in his face. "Oh, it's abjuration, though I mostly stick with shields."

  "They're barriers," Sven corrected. "I do shields, look," he said, and tapped the back of Stanley's hand.

  Buff Gained: [Minor Shield of Deferred Consequences](03:59:59)

  [Minor Shield of Deferred Consequences]

  A percentage of all damage taken under this effect will be deferred during the first half of its duration.

  All deferred damage will accumulate evenly over the second half of its duration.

  Effect:

  5% Damage Deferred

  "That's..." Stanley didn't want to say it was useless, but it kind of was. Interesting, but still useless.

  "Please tell me you're not wasting your cooldowns right before we head out?" Kira growled.

  "Relax," Sven drawled. "I gave him the useless five percent one." He grinned at Stanley. "Yeah, I saw that look. Trust me, I've got a lot of them, all better than that one, and even one that blocks a hundred percent, though that one only lasts five minutes at the moment..."

  "So you can spread out the damage, which isn't nothing, but can you heal it afterward?"

  Sven sighed. "Everyone wants a damn healer... which I'm not! Though I do have a few regeneration boosters that work really well with food," he added quickly and under his breath.

  "See?" Lionel said. "He's a healer. Just not a good one."

  "Everybody's a critic," Sven muttered. Then he perked up with a conniving look at Stanley. "I could show you the good shields if you want to come with us..."

  Stanley shook his head with a bad feeling that he might end up getting the same request from everyone he talked to. "I'm taking a break from hunting. Doctor's orders."

  "Guys." Arnold stood up abruptly, his fists on the table. "I'm all for recruiting useful talent, but can we at least talk about it first? I know we're safer with more of us, but the cores are already stretched thin between..." He trailed off when Sven started laughing. "What's so damn funny!?"

  Sven only got a few words out through his laughter. "Stanley... you... I can't!"

  Kira came to his rescue with a glance at Stanley that was only slightly nervous. "Can I tell him, or are you seriously trying to... fly under the radar?"

  "It's fine," Stanley said before turning to Arnold. "I'm actually Stanley Cascade. You know, the demon?" he added when the man only stared blankly. "Oh, and Caffeine here really is the Beast Lord."

  Arnold looked around the table with a frown and received confirming nods from Sven, Kira, and Amanda. He frowned at Stanley, then Caffeine, then burst out laughing. "You guys are good! I almost fell for that one!"

  "He really is," Amanda said, as earnest as can be, and Arnold only laughed harder.

  "Seriously!" Sven said. "Stanley, show him something... I know, do the eyes thing!"

  "Okay," Stanley said. "Here it is." Then he stared at Arnold and did absolutely nothing.

  "No! You're not doing it!" Sven wailed. "Come on!"

  Elias and Lionel eventually started laughing as well, and Kira only shook her head when Sven started begging her to help...

  Stanley didn't lie about who he was, but he also didn't go out of his way to prove it, either. He kept it going all the way until they left to keep hunting. It was fun.

  Then he spent some time meditating before eyeing the surrounding crowds. Okay, who's next? He had a bad feeling that the mingling wouldn’t all go as well as the first attempt. It was probably going to be a long day...

  ~~~Caffeine~~~

  Caffeine crawled out from under the covers when Dearest Human started making the upset noises and moving around too much. He smelled like afraid and he was making the house shake... so Caffeine gave him some good face licks to make him feel better. It didn't always work, but this time, Dearest Human smelled better.

  Also, he smelled like Talking Human, but she wasn't here... Not like Everywhere Human, who was always here.

  She was doing something to Dearest Human... so Caffeine followed the smell to the door. It was closed, but if he leaned on it, it would always open, and it did.

  Caffeine followed the smell through the big house until he found another door that smelled the most like Talking Human. It also smelled a lot like Everywhere Human.

  "He's right outside," Everywhere Human said something from the other side of the door, and Caffeine leaned on it until it opened.

  "Hi, Caffeine," Talking Human said while smelling like nervous in her chair. "I'm sorry if I disturbed you... How much does he understand?"

  "That is a question of some debate. However, I believe there is no doubt he has noticed what you were doing." Everywhere Human said some things, and then he made a fish snack appear! "Would sir enjoy some light refreshment?"

  Caffeine licked his nose excitedly but didn't eat the snack yet. Instead, he went to get a better sniff of Talking Human.

  Dearest Human talked to her sometimes, but he didn't always enjoy talking to her. Sometimes she made Dearest Human grouchy...

  She held out her fingers, but Caffeine hopped into her lap. Sitting on laps was the best way to sniff someone. It was also the easiest way to see if they had any food hiding in their mouth...

  "I was trying to help Stanley, Caffeine," she said something while leaning away and smelling like afraid. She also didn't have any food in her mouth. "He gave me permission to use my power on him, but his mind is a brick wall... in a good way! I think? Whatever it is, I can't use my power to help him like I do everyone else."

  She sighed and smelled like laughing and afraid at the same time, but she also gave him some soft pets. "I'm only trying to help him sleep, Caffeine, that's all. I'm sure you don't like it when he starts tossing and turning, right?"

  Talking Human went back to smelling only like afraid while he sniffed her. She did that sometimes when she did the talking with Dearest Human... "He could kill everyone here in his sleep. One nightmare that gets a little too strong... and we all die. So is it okay if I help him?"

  Caffeine sniffed her extra strong while Everywhere Human said something very softly, then Fire Dog appeared and growled at him! "The human is helping your Dearest Human sleep without nightmares, so leave her alone!"

  "Oh," Caffeine huffed. "So she's a Good Not Dearest Human?"

  "Yes!" Fire Dog barked. She was very grouchy. Probably because she smelled like very tired and very sleepy.

  "You should take more naps," Caffeine woofed at her. "Naps are the best for not being tired!"

  Fire Dog tried to bite him, and Everywhere Human made her not here. He also put the fish on the floor! "I believe you should be fine to continue now, Ms. Lennon."

  "Thank you, Walter," Talking Human said something while giving Caffeine some very gentle back scratches. "You’re a lifesaver."

  "I assure you, I am entirely in your debt, Miss. Should you ever require..."

  "Enough of that, Walter. I'm doing what I can to help a patient, and..."

  Caffeine finished his snack and ran back to Dearest Human very fast. This time, he curled up on top of the covers. Just in case.